2009 Illinois

 

2009 Ohio

It is rare that I ever give anyone my recommendation for training horses, but I highly recommend Harden's Gaited Stables for all your gaited training needs. I've been in the gaited horse business, mostly show and some trail with several breeds, for nearly 30 years now, and I've experienced the best and the worst from horse trainers. With Harrison and Bobbie, it's all the best! When you leave a horse with Harrison, it gets ridden! Really, Im not joking!!!! But what's more, your horse will have impeccable manners and will have been exposed to all things spooky (at least in a horse's mind) and you will be able to ride it when you get home!

One reason I chose Harrison to work with one of my young KMSHA geldings is because, fortunately with Mountain horses, you can train your show horse on the trail (and not all Mountain horse trainers will do that, either) , and where better to train than on the trail? So, after seeing him exhibit one of his fine stallions at the Hoosier Horse Fair, I knew this was the right guy to train my horse.

What's so impressive is that there is no use of hash bits, no devices, nothing artificial. Your horse truly gets the attention it deserves because Harrison takes only one or two horses at a time, and HE is the one riding your horse, unlike some of the large "mega stables" where you have no idea who is riding your horse, if it's being ridden at all. I also love that Harrison and Bobbie are so down-to-earth. Your horse will be treated as if it were one of their own. I can't say enough!

I will be showing my gelding in trail pleasure, trail obstacle, and conformation classes at the KMSHA and RMHA shows in 2010. I invite you to come see the results that Harrison and Bobbie helped me achieve with my gelding, Buddy Newman.

Jennifer Wright

1990 TWHB&EA Youth Supreme Versatility Champion,

winner of numerous titles in both the Walking and Racking horse industries,

and owner of 3W Show Stock, home of fine show Swine and Mountain Horses

 

2009 Indiana

 

 

 

Dec. 2009 Arizona

Dear Harrison & Bobbie,

This is the hardest note I have ever written Ever.

Dancer & I had a wonderful life together we rode every mountain and valley and trail around here and especially last summer. It was so beautiful and wonderful. She was always a total lady on the trail and never kicked or threathen any other horse. She always went where I asked her and we often rode along. She was the most Beautiful Rocky Mountain Horse/ Kentucky Mountain they will ever make. We had gotten to the point of almost reading each other's minds and it only took the slightest cue to give her direction. From the time she was trained at your house we were off and running. About the age of four she suddenly seemed to become spooky and jumpy on the trail...But we kept riding. Then she started to have issues when her girth was tightened up where all her muscles would twitch. We had chiropractors out for horses and three vets looked at her and all kinds of blood panels. They said she had low thyroid and was insulin resistant. We went on special diets and I fed her every three hours every day and gave her thyroid, chromium and magesium in addition to a great and frequent daily diet. We kept riding. Then suddenly she could not lower her head to eat and seemed blind and began walking into things. I spent over $2000.00 at the best clinic around ..They could not pin point the problem. I did not give up but found a vet who put her on steroids to reduce the inflamtion in her brain and antibiotics and banamine to also reduce any inflamation and she came back around and we went off riding again. She was so brave and we both so loved the mountains. When I was out riding with another couple at the end of summer we went down a mountain chute and she collapsed and fell on me and pinned me. It was very steep and she had to roll uphill (not the easy way down hillside) in order to save my life. She was very weak and tried so hard to get up going uphill..she tried so hard and then somehow managed to get off of me. I saw her turn around to see if I was okay and then she collapsed in between two hugh boulders and was pinned. I managed to pull myself up and had no cell phone reception so I asked the other couple to go down into town and get help. Dancer and I stayed together, she was trying to thrash herself free and I was trying to hold her down. There was no way she could have gotten out of the boulders pinning her by herself with out breaking all her legs.  We waited 45 minutes together and I started trying to dig the boulders out from the bottom..they were so big and heavy. Suddenly a man came down the trail with a paramedic outfit on and said he was there to help. fortunally he was a young and huge man and tried so hard to move the huge rocks. He called others to help and slowly they came but they wanted to take me away to the hospital and I simply told them that they had better call for more help to get my horse out because I was not leaving without her. They got twelve men there and all stood in a line and inched the boulders away from her. It was not working then they were going to give up and I pledged that they try again so they all did and somehow they got them away enough that she could get up. When she did get up I was so scared that she had broken a hip or leg.But all was intact. Except she was so weak that she could hardly walk. Some of the men got in front and some in back and they literally lifted her out of the trail to the trailer. I was so swollen that I could hardly get in the truck but drove her right to the vets and they still could not find the cause of all this. I had by this time had her tested for EPM, West Nile, Parasites or protasoa that could infulence her brain. All test and blood work came back normal. Once again we put her on steroids, banamine and antibiotics and she came back. Then about two months later it all started again and she could not lower he head or see. Again we gave her the steroids ect. and she came back and we were again back out riding. Then on December 30th I went out at 6:30 to feed her and she was standing in the corner of her stall resting her head on the wall feeder and could not move. The vet came in 25 minutes and said that he wanted to just move her outside and she flipped over in the air and just missed hitting my head (again saving my life) and was seizuring and we could not bring her back. The final diagnosis was that she had a brain tumor and because it just kept coming back harder and faster and because we had tested her and treated her for everything else...it was what finally ended her life. It was something after two years of trying that could not be fixed..needless to say it has destoryed me it has been a month and I still cry every night. Dancer was 6 years old but I can tell you she rode everyday with me no matter what and she never lacked for anything to give her a good life. She was always treated with kindness and she was a Happy Horse she probably did and saw more in her short lifetime than others ever will. I feel so fortunate that she was such a wonderful part of my life and she will always be a part of me Always.

Mary Merchant